Is Your Social Media Etiquette up to Scratch?

Believe it or not there is some etiquette to how the big wide world of social media works. Here, social media agency ApexHub discuss what they consider to be bad social etiquette (or ‘netiquette’) and how people should apply courtesy, good manners and common sense to the world of social media, just like they would in real life!

Always update your profile!

Ensure any profiles you have, be it Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Foursquare, etc. gives all of the relevant information about you. Include things like:

Who you are

Where you are based

Your qualifications

The business/company you work for.

You’d never shake a person’s hand when you first meet them without introducing yourself, right? Social media follows exactly the same principles ─ you shouldn’t extend a friend request or follow someone without providing them with information about who you are.

Be careful when using capital letters!

Capital letters aren’t there to be used unnecessarily. Social media allows you to use capital letters to emphasise a word but not to write an entire post/status update/tweet. This is because it looks like you are shouting at your readers – which, let’s face it, you don’t want to be doing. Remember, social media is just like real life – you wouldn’t speak really loudly or shout when you communicate to people right next to you, so don’t do it on social media.

Say thank you

When one of your followers retweets you on Twitter, or ‘likes’ or comments on one of your Facebook updates, YouTube videos or blog posts, it’s always a nice idea to thank them. Showing a bit of courtesy to your followers helps to boost your engagement and you’ll be recognised for your good manners.

People like people

Make sure any personal and business pages contain an up-to-date image of you or the team on them as people like to see people! You’ll find more people will connect with your profile if it offers a people-orientated theme.

Be social

By definition, social media requires us all to be social, so if you’re not comfortable with the idea of this then why not pick another member of the team to take on the role of ‘social media champion’ – they can become the ‘personality’ behind your platform!

Let others do the talking for you

If you want people to talk about you or your page, avoid posting an unsolicited promotion about yourself or your business on somebody else’s Facebook profile or page, it’s rude to assume that they are happy for you to do so without asking, plus the content isn’t always relevant to that specific person or page.

Best practice for this is where people review or talk about you by tagging you in a post or status update. In social media, a personal referral has far more impact than you blowing your own horn on other people’s pages uninvited! So invite testimonials and let other people do the raving for you!

That’s enough from us this time, but if you want to see more guides on effectively managing your practice’s social media, head on over to the Practice Plan Resource Library – there’s stacks of tips and advice on what works and what doesn’t!